Asymetrical wind orientation: Difference in tone?

[Rex_Rocker]

Thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss.

Right now, I have a DiMarzio D Activator in the bridge position of my Fender Strat. I like it. As soon as I got it, I figured "I like bridge pickups that are really close to the bridge, so I'll try it with the hotter coild towards the bridge". But I've never actually tried it the other way around. I'll try when I get my new pickguard. I just want to see what effect the brass block has on the tone first.

I also have a DiMarzio Evolution in the neck position of my Gibson LP. My first thought was to have the hotter coil towards the bridge. I tried it, and I liked it. So I figured I'd flip it to give it a try. I notice something different, but I can't quite write an essay on the difference I found. TBH, I don't really use the neck pickup all that much, so I don't know it like the palm of my hand like I do the 500T in the bridge.

So what is you guys' experience? What have you noticed happens when you flip pickups with asymmetrical winds? I know the simplest explanation is "fatter with the hotter coil towards the neck, brighter with the hotter coil towards the bridge", but that's kind of oversimplifying things. That'd be like saying just rolling of the tone on a bridge pickup makes it sound like a neck pickup.

So... let's discuss!

 

[Clint 55]

When I tried JB/Custom 5 hybrids, I thought it sounded smoother with the hotter coil towards the bridge and harsher with the weaker coil toward the bridge.

 

[freefrog]

Asymmetric coils don't only have asymmetric output levels, making one of them louder than the other : they have asymmetric capacitive values, locating their own resonances at different frequencies. Hence a "dual tuning" effect affecting their coupling and filtering the high harmonics accordingly, beyond the main resonant peak.

That's exactly the principle behind DiMarzio Dual-Resonance.

And the effect of this phenomenon is by definition variable... Capacitive mismatching can be used to aggravate the capacitive difference already present because of 4-conductors cables. In this case, the comb filtering necessarily caused by the cable (and usually not much noticeable) is exagerated by the coils and becomes a tone shaping tool. The Tone-Zone is an example of this.

But counter-intuitively, the capacitive mismatching between asymmetric coils can also be used to "correct" the mismatching due to the cable by symetrizing capacitive loads of coils + cable. In which case it flattens the harmonic response beyond the main resonant peak. The P90 sized DiMarzio DLX + humbucker is an example of that.

A funny thing is that if one reverses the direction of the magnet and the wiring (swapping hot and ground), the filtering due to capacitive mismatching becomes totally different, with a potential effect on tone ...

A while back, I've shared as much as possible on this subject in a topic on the music-electronics-forum. The posts 22 and 23, especially, did illustrate what I'm talking about.

https://music-electronics-forum.com...ransducers-a-few-thoughts?p=966530#post966530

​FWIW.